My web app needs to browse the local file system for file names and
directories to build lists for processing with a commercial application.
I realize this is a no no for web client apps due to security concerns.
One approach is to write signed java applets to integrate this
functionality. While this would work, I was curious if it is possible to
make a signed piece of ruby code to do the same thing?

The code could be RJS based and signed. Is there any way to make this
happen and keep out of the java world? Is jruby a possibility?

Rails has nothing to do with this (being the server and all, no
interaction
with client computers). Java applets work because they are run on the
client. Javascript is not allowed to do much in this space, last I
checked,
so you’re basically stuck with a Flash or Java app embedded in the page
that
can post back to the server.

My web app needs to browse the local file system for file names and
directories to build lists for processing with a commercial application.
I realize this is a no no for web client apps due to security concerns.
One approach is to write signed java applets to integrate this
functionality. While this would work, I was curious if it is possible to
make a signed piece of ruby code to do the same thing?

The code could be RJS based and signed. Is there any way to make this
happen and keep out of the java world? Is jruby a possibility?

Thanks any help is greatly appreciated,
Rick

When you said your web app needs to browse the local file system, does
it means the file system of the web server or does it means the file
system of the people browsing/access your web page? If it is the
former, it is simple using the File Class. If it is the later, I am not
sure. If it is file upload, you can use the file_field_tag.

On the other hand, if you can run application on the client end, then
you can build one with ruby that look up the workstation’s file system
and send appropriate messages to the server (with backgroundrb?)